What does it mean to be a man? We live in a day and age when there is a lot of confusion around this topic. When you turn on the television today, many of the television shows and movies portray men as bumbling idiots. The truth is, there is some merit to the way men are being defined in our culture. It is painful to acknowledge this, but we cannot escape the truth. What happened? Where did things go wrong? For many males, they haven’t always had the greatest role models to aspire to be like. In many ways, our father’s have dropped the ball. I am not placing blame, I am just making a point.
Where does one go to learn what it means to be a man? There is no school to go to or courses we can take. It’s not wise to watch movies or tv programs to try and learn what it means to be a man. For many. There are belief systems and ideologies which need to be torn down in order to have a healthy understanding of what it means to be a man. Your belief system controls your actions. Right believing will cause right living. For me, the Bible is my frame of reference. I believe Biblical manhood is when we recognize we are created in the image of God. Men are to be image bearers. We are to bear the image of the One who created us.
Listen to what Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV) says about Jesus:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Do you want to learn what it means to be a man? Jesus is our greatest example! If you want to be a man, be like Jesus. I feel a great responsibility to learn what it means to be a man as I have two sons. I know I have a lot of areas in my life where I need to grow and mature but I endeavor to allow the work of Divine surgeon to do only what He can do.
What does it mean to you to be a man?
